“Holy fuck.” Klaus said.

“You really did it, huh? And now what? What are you going to do?” inquired Jayaa, on the other end of the call.

Looking in the bathroom mirror, Klaus reflected on his colleague’s question.

Although it was a big problem to have people hating him now, he knew that this risk was real when he decided to take advantage of the gigantic gap that existed in that raid against the Boss. The way Klaus defeated the Centaur Druid was simple for him as he identified what was needed to do to succeed.

Now it was his responsibility to deal with the issues that killing this mythical creature would cause.

“Is this guild called Desert Lions famous?”

“Are they famous? They are literally at the top3 of the most powerful in the Tretidian Kingdom. Also, their leader, Taznaar, is truly a monster. They say he started 2 months ago and may already be over level 50.”

“That’s not a big deal… Pay attention, Jayaa; they only know my nickname, so there’s no reason to worry about that. There’s no way they can know who I am.”

“I would normally agree with you, but if they saw how many views this video got, they’ll probably want to hunt you down now to get more fame.”

“Do views matter that much these days? I thought that was more of a thing of the past.”

“They usually don’t really matter, but on the Rise Online video platform is where they really have value. I sent you the video link on the forum, but on that forum, it only has thousands of views; on the official video platform, there are millions of views.” Jayaa explained, finally calming down a bit.

“Is that serious?”

“I wouldn’t joke about that. Wait, you didn’t know that?”

“O-of course I knew, but just in case, explain to me a little more about it.”

“Hahahaha! All right, I’ll do the talking.”

Then, Jayaa revealed to Klaus an essential feature of Rise Online that would allow him to have another source of income besides sales of the drops from his hunts and weapons he would produce in the future.

This special and also key feature was the ability to make live streams and record videos, using RO’s exclusive video platform where spending game coins was allowed. For example, to watch a live broadcast, one would pay 1 bronze coin, and if one wanted to talk in the broadcast chat, one would have to pay for that as well, as well as a monthly subscription to have access to the videos that the channel owner could post.

Paying to do things that were free on other platforms seemed greedy initially, but Rise Online’s own video platform abused the fact that it was the only one on the market that allowed the use of in-game coins. So people didn’t have to deal with the money in their bank account, just the money in the game account. This made them spend money without even realizing it, thinking they would only watch one video, and before they knew it, they had already watched several.

Despite having researched a lot about Rise Online before he started playing it, the more than half a dozen articles Klaus read were not enough to get out of the initial shell of gameplay features; none of these posts mentioned this feature. Klaus didn’t blame the sites he read for not talking about this other type of income. After all, more essential and compelling things must be explained.

“If I had known about this before, I would have recorded my POV against the Centaur Druid.” Klaus whispered after hearing Jayaa explain it to him.

“Dude, was it really a mythical creature, or did whoever posted the video just overstate the description?” Jayaa inquired, interested.

“Yes, it was, but I was lucky that my guess was right about the region. In fact, let’s forget this subject for now. What level are you, Jayaa?”

“Definitely lower than yours because I couldn’t even kill an epic creature if I encountered one, let alone a mythical one. Anyway, last weekend, I got to level 20.”

“Didn’t you say you’ve been playing this for several weeks?!” Klaus scoffed.𝒐𝑣𝑙xt.𝔠𝑶𝑚

“Hey! You asking like that breaks my heart… Besides, you don’t know half the things I know. I may not be as desperate as you to level up, but I’m gossipy, you know, so I know things.”

“Okay… Jayaa, I will be going to the Royal Capital tomorrow. I will let you know when I get there, and we will meet then.”

“All right, see you tomorrow, and don’t forget to be careful. The Desert Lions are not to be underestimated.”

“Yes, I know. See ya!”

It sucked for Klaus to have to deal with high-level players irritated with him. However, he was sure there was no way he could be recognized without the mask.

There was the problem that Korgrak and his friends knew what Klaus looked like, but Korgrak owed him a favor, so he probably wouldn’t want to hunt for more trouble.

The great news of the evening was that Klaus knew of a new resource to help him earn money, and the urge to try this was almost overwhelming. However, if he were going to do it, he would do it the right way, wanting to make as many views, comments, and likes as possible to earn thousands of coins.

After Klaus finished the call with Jayaa, he bought a pizza, ate it, put the box with the remaining pieces in the refrigerator, and went to his room. The idea before he got the call was to go back for deep soaking, but it was getting late, and he was very tired. His day had been very long and exhausting, both physically and mentally. It was time to pull the plug for now.

But before laying down on his bed, Kaizen sat in his computer chair and entered the Rise Online setup.

His stats had made a huge jump, and every time he looked at his class, he was curious about where it would take him after he unlocked the other two remaining starting skills. As he stared at his avatar screens, unconsciously, his eyes fixed on the Epic Rank Beast Mount he received.

‘It’s a good mount, probably one of the best I can get. It’s fast and agile, but it doesn’t obey me properly, and it has a tantrum… I know it’s just a matter of time for Chiron to get used to me and for me to get used to him, but I don’t know if I want that. I want something simple that won’t draw too much attention from the other players until I want their attention… And I also need money.’

His hand gripped the mouse and stopped over the Druid Beast Mount item. Then, after a few seconds, he right-clicked and left-clicked on the option to AUCTION.

The initial auction value was set to 15 gold coins, and Klaus judged that it would not be worth selling for less than that.

…

Edited by: DrHitsuji

If you want to see original illustrations of Rise Online characters, consider helping me on pa treon: Pa treon.com/NandoFalske

More character images in:

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